Take Action: Urge your Member to Support the No Hate Act

Despite a recent increase in hate crimes, law enforcement agencies are not required to report these crimes. In many instances, crimes that could be investigated as hate crimes are either not investigated as such or not charged as such. This can be for various reasons including that not all states have hate crime legislation or that local officers lack the proper training. These factors contribute to a serious underreporting of hate crimes.

Today, amidst a wave of hate crimes - Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) and Representative Beyer (D-VA) introduced legislation that would provide incentives for more accurate hate crime reporting and grants for state-run hate crime hotlines. It would also give victims the right to privately sue perpetrators.

The legislation comes at a time when there have been several high-profile, violent hate crimes targeting the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities.